Books Read in 2012

2012 was a great year for books, I found some real gems and had a great time reading whenever I could. By the end of the year I had read 116 books. I will list the books based on stars I gave them on Goodread.com. The 5's and 4's are worth reading as are many of the 3's, the 2's, well they were okay, but would not be the first ones that I would recommend.

As for the classification system Goodreads uses the following criteria:
***** - It Was Amazing
**** - Really Like It
*** - Liked It
** - It Was Okay

*****
A Million Stars 
Hex Hall
One Thousand White Women:The Journals of May Dodd
The Lost Gate
Gregor and the Code of the Claw
Unwind
11/22/63
Dating and Other Frightening Experiences
The Serpent's Shadow
Calico Joe
Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account
Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot"
The Legacies
Bewitching
Hidden Empire
Dark Life

****
XVI
Shadows in Flight
The Pledge
Forgotten
Ashfall
Gregor and the Marks of Secret
Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods
Gregor the Overlander
Gregor adn the Prophecy of Bane
Aliens of Vacation
These is My Words
Truth
Demonglass
Anna Dressed in Blood
Rot &Ruin
Torn
Silence
Variant
Thirteen Days to Midnight
Delirium
Plague
Thumped
Ascend
Partials
Alien on a Rampage
Beastly: Lindy's Diary
Away
Ashes
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
The Ghost and the Goth
Unbroken
Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot
Queen of the Dead
Body & Soul
The Kill Order
The Rise of Nine
Dust & Decay
The Mark of Athena
Lockdown
Edenbrooke
Caught
Reached
Cinder
Between Shades of Gray
Behind the Gates
Run for Cover
With the Enemy

***
My Name is Memory
Mockingbird
Scored
Switched
The Line
Hush, Hush
Starcrossed
Jellicoe Road
Crescendo
Book of a Thousand Days
Seeds of Rebellion
Shatter Me
Paranormalcy
Bumped
Helper 12
Wither
Insurgent
Hana
Pandemonium
The Burn
The Manning Brides
The Manning Sisters
The Manning Grooms
Stupid Fast
Breathing Underwater
Diva
The New World
Trapped
Dead Is the New Black
Dead Is a State of Mind
Dead Is So Last Year
Dead Is Just  Rumor
Dead Id Not An Option
Supernaturally
Dreamless
Thirteen Reasons Why
Dead Is a Battlefield
Thomas's First Memory of the Flare
Rise of the Elgen
UnWholly
The Eleventh Plague
The Ask and the Answer
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Rip Tide
The Healing Spell
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Monsters of Men

**
Possession
The Mostly True Story of Jack
Candle in the Darkness
Harry Potter: The Prequel
Blood Red Road
The decoding of Lana Morris

December

December was quite a fun month around here. We love Christmas time and were so excited to spend Christmas with our family in San Diego this year. While we were there the San Diegans all complained of the cold, but we Idahoans were loving the warm weather. We wore shorts and tees all week as well as sandals  it was great. We loved spending time with our family, we miss seeing them and love when we have the chance. We also were able to go to Sea World while there and that was a lot of fun! The kids loved the animals, rides and shows.

We started out the month finding out that we are going to be having another little boy. Benjamin Roscoe will be joining the family on April 18th. His birthday will be one day after his great-grandfathers, and one day before his dads. We are very excited to have another little boy and think that Jonathan will love finally having a brother and someone littler than him to boss around.

 Jonathan was having fun running around and playing with his ball, he also was calling himself, 'dorable Johnny. It was very 'dorable.

 At the ward Christmas party, the kids all enjoyed visiting with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

 We had lunch at a friends house and Johnny was in heaven, he found a ball and a puppy, what more can a little boy ask for.

 While in San Diego we had two family "devotionals" or as other people might call them, football games. James of course hates crowds and football so he escaped to the back room to hang out. Jonathan loves the idea of football and playing with his, but has no interest in watching it, he also doesn't really like crowds of people. So in the end my boys hung out in the back and watched cartoon, at least they were bonding.

 We excitedly went out to In-n-Out Burger for dinner one night, Johnny believes that ketchup is for drinking, silly kid.

 It's not often that I can catch him while he is still asleep, but he was so cute here.

 The traditional opening of Christmas Eve jammies.

 Bella received Hello Kitty jammies and Johnny was able to combine his love of football and Mickey Mouse with his.

 

 MacKayla and her Cinderella jammies and robe.

 Annika had Tinker bell jammies and a robe.

 Showing off Mickey.

 All of the kids in their new jammies, ready for Christmas.

 We have a tradition that Grandma always read "Twas the night before Christmas" to the kids on Christmas Eve. When we are in town she reads her copy and when we are here, we Skype and she reads her copy while I flip through the pages of our copy. It has become a great Christmas tradition.

 Grandpa also reads the Christmas story from the scripture for us. Here it was in the traditional form of a smart phone :)

 Santa came to our house!

 All of the kids on Christmas morning ready to see what Santa brought for them.

 Johnny wasn't ready to get into the presents yet, he found his coloring book and wanted to sit in the hall and play with it.

 Arabella showing off her Tangled underwear. We also have a tradition that Santa brings everyone new underwear in their stocking. It came about while watching The Polar Express movie, the know-it-all kid says that Santa doesn't bring underwear, and the kids thought that was the funniest thing ever. So ever since Santa has in fact brought new underwear.

 Mom is a meany and rarely shares her gum with the kids, but good ole Santa brought each of them two packs of their own fun, Bella was in heaven.

 Annika opening her stocking and finding her underwear.

 Johnny finaly decided he wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and he was very excited to open his presents.

 Annika's first gift of the year, she got the book "Annika's Secret Wish." Pretty cool to have a book with your name in the title.

 She might not look excited, but she loves making words on her magnetic letter toy.

 MacKayla wins with the best reaction for her gift.

 Grandma having fun.

 Daddy loves the fun of Christmas.

 Totally into his presents now.

 Kelsey excitedly opening her first present.

 Daddy's first gift of the year.

 Bella having fun with Great Grandma at Christmas morning part 2. Santa comes and visits Grandma's house for us as well. I didn't get anymore pictures that morning but we loved spending Christmas with Great-Grandma. Her yummy Christmas brunch is one of the things that we always miss when we are not there.

 We were able to spend another day with Grandma and had lots of fun sharing love and time with other another,

 This rocking chair belonged to Uncle Jon when he was a little boy, it is always fun to share it with the kids when we visit.

 He was having a great time, but was getting a little tired, I love the picture though, he looks so sweet.

 Johnny was a little possessive of the chair but was willing to let Bella sit with him. Here Johnny is also holding the teddy bear that James had when he was a little baby. 

 Beautiful Grandma and her wonderful smile.

 Bella loved spending time with Grandma.

 He was having fun, even if it doesn't look like it.

 The kids love Great-Grandma.

We wanted a picture of Grandma with Jamers, but Johnny snuck in a well.

 The dolphins at Sea World. We didn't get a lot of pictures here either, but we did have a lot of fun.

 The killer whale show, it was neat, but since the trainers don't get in the water with animals anymore, it wasn't nearly as cool as it used to be. MacKayla and Kelsey did sit in the front of the splash zone and they got soaked, and loved it!